Filenews 9 November 2021 - by Marilena Panagi
The public debate on the GHS continued yesterday in high tones, although the law proposal submitted by the President of EDEK, Marinos Sizopoulos, for the amendment of the basic legislation of the System, which provides that non-GHS doctors will have the right to prescribe within the System, not only does not gain ground among the parliamentary parties, but will probably remain in the drawers of the Health Committee of the Parliament for the time being.
Yesterday, the DIKO also opened its cards publicly after the parliamentary representative of the party, Panicos Leonidou, stated that his party will not vote for the law proposal of the president of EDEK, saying that the DIKO "is against this proposal". "This proposal is contrary to the philosophy of the GHS. We said to point out some distortions and correct these distortions in order to help the System", he said and reiterated that "it is the position of the DIKO that we cannot enter into this discussion, because as Mr. Sizopoulos has put it, it will be like attempting to change the entire philosophy of the GHS".
In the previous days and apart from the statements of the deputy president of DISY Harris Georgiades, which were rather vague, the president of the ruling party and other MPs, had publicly expressed their opposition to the support of the proposal of Marinos Sizopoulos, while the positions of the President of the Republic were clear.
On the part of AKEL, the intentions were clear from the first moment, while a relevant announcement was also made by the Democratic Party, a fact that mathematically, apart from the unexpected, seems to lead to a vote against the proposal of Marinos Sizopoulos even if it is led at some point to the Plenum of the Parliament.
The director of the FIO, Andreas Papakonstantinou, also made a relevant point, saying that "the Sizopoulos proposal does not aim at its implementation" and expressed the view that "there is more discussion than it should since it does not seem to secure the majority in parliament to pass".
Against this proposal and the proposal that the deputy president of DISY had submitted orally to the Parliament and concerned changes in the way personal doctors of the GHS are paid, it seems that the personal doctors themselves are in agreement.
The president of the Society of Family and Personal Doctors Andreas Polynices called the law proposal "unorthodox and without logic", while for the dialogue concerning the remuneration of personal doctors, he stated that "the way of compensating family doctors is the per capita cut-off, which if differentiated will be a change in the philosophy of the GHS". He stressed that this way preserves the patient so that he is not treated as "money", but that he seeks to solve problems he faces.
